A new phase is coming for the Heritage Trail East project in downtown Round Rock with a fresh agreement on the books.  

What you need to know: Round Rock City Council approved a supplement to its agreement with contractor Parkhill, Smith & Cooper Inc. for the engineering and plan updates to Heritage Trail East on July 23.

The contract amount of $522,133 will be paid through city bonds, city documents show.

About the project: Heritage Trail East is a continuation of Heritage Trail West, and will span Mays Street to Georgetown Street in downtown Round Rock on the north bank of Brushy Creek, per city documents. It will be a 10-foot-wide paved trail designed to act as a historical timeline of Round Rock including educational, arts, cultural and park elements.

What's next? Round Rock Parks and Recreation Director Rick Atkins He said this agreement is one of the last steps before the project could move into the construction phase potentially later this year, with land acquisition, permitting and engineering complete.

ETS Performance, a youth training facility, will open its first two Texas locations in Leander and Round Rock, the company announced in July.

About the business: Founded in 2010 by Ryan and Heidi Englebert, ETS Performance offers professional coaching to youth athletes. The business has expanded to more than 50 locations across the country.

What they offer: The facility provides speed training, strength programs and athletic development as well as training for collegiate and professional athletes, and performance training designed for teams.

• Leander address TBD; 2009 Lamar Drive, Ste. B, Round Rock

Texas State University in San Marcos will begin to offer a new program for students in the Department of Engineering Technology with the issuance of a $1 million grant.

The framework: The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, or IACMI, has awarded Texas State University a three-year grant to establish the Metallurgical Engineering, Trades Apprenticeship and Learning, or METAL, program, according to a news release.

The METAL program will train students to work in the metal casting, forging and forming industries through free online training and in-person bootcamps, according to the release. Four bootcamps will be offered per year, all of which provide one week of hands-on training at no cost to the participants to learn a wide variety of topics related to metal casting, such as:

• Tool design
• Process simulation
• Heat treatment
• Metal rolling
• Forging

A Burlington in Kyle, a Fairfield Inn in Bastrop and an AutoZone in Austin are among the five most expensive projects filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in the Austin metro this week.

1. Burlington ($16.5 million): A new Burlington store is coming to the Kyle Park mixed-use development.

2. Fairfield Inn Staybridge Suites ($10 million): A new 121-key hotel is coming to Bastrop, with construction set to conclude in summer 2028.

3. Slaughter Lane Signal Improvements ($1.2 million): This project includes the installation of accessible pedestrian push-buttons, pedestrian signal poles, and renovation of curb ramps and adjacent sidewalks at 11 traffic signals on the Slaughter Lane corridor.

4. AutoZone ($1.1 million): A new AutoZone location is planned for Austin. The 6,446 square-foot auto parts store is set to begin construction in April.

5. Jersey Mike's ($250,000): A new Jersey Mike's is planned for Cedar Park. The 1,457-square-foot sandwich shop is expected to be completed in October.

Texas lawmakers are considering cutting a costly, decade-old tax break for the state’s booming data center industry.

The overview: Texas spends more than $1 billion annually on the sales tax exemption, and the comptroller’s office estimated in 2025 that due to the program, the state will lose about $3.2 billion in sales tax revenue over the next two years.

The Lone Star State is home to the nation’s fastest-growing data center market, and the Data Center Coalition, which advocates for the industry, has argued that the tax break program is key to maintaining that title. Senators and members of the public who spoke at a July 27 hearing disagreed.

Looking ahead: Amid a bipartisan push for more regulation of data centers, senators indicated that they intend to add more strings to the tax exemption program or eliminate it entirely.

"The question is whether or not we need to have a special session where all of us are focusing in on this," Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said.

“We do,” Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, replied.